Fasting is one of the five fundamental pillars in Islam. It is a universal institution because all other religions in the world also adopted fasting in some forms as the principal method of controlling and killing passions. Fasting helps in gaining perfection in all activities of our worldly life. Like prayer, the institution of fasting is kept alive as it is observed every year in the Islamic world and forms the regulating principle of their lives. In fact, benefits of fasting are endless. Fasting helps in gaining Taqwa (Fearness and love of Almighty Allah). Almighty Allah legislated fasting for gaining Taqwa through the following verse of the Holy Qur’an, “O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed upon you as it has been prescribed upon those before you, so that you may attain Taqwa.” (2:183) Taqwa in this case means to make a shield between oneself and Almighty Allah’s anger and hellfire. Fasting helps in acquiring patience and strong will. Fasting reinforces our belief that the realities about which we have been given information by Allah and His Prophet (SAW) are not material and sensual but are far more precious, invaluable and satisfying than the material and sensual urges like hunger, thirst, and sex. Fasting also reinforces the fact that the real thing is obedience to Allah. It is Allah’s Will alone that is the final authority to determine right and wrong.
“The greatness and blessing of this month lie in Allah’s decision to send His Guidance in it, and He handed over the last piece of revelation to humanity through His Last Prophet. The purpose of enjoining fasting in this month is to produce that Taqwah in ourselves that generates strength and capability to uphold the guidance of holy Quran.”
Virtue and reward lie neither in eating nor in abstaining from eating; it is neither in sleeping nor in keeping awake. Virtue and reward are contained in submission and obedience to Allah. This is because only then the capability of giving priority to the accomplishment of Quranic mission over material and sensual urges can be produced. And this capability is piety (Taqwah). Fast has no physical form: the hunger, thirst and sexual urge can neither be seen by others, nor felt, nor can one fully share in the feelings of others. Fasting and prayers during the night can produce that high level of Taqwah as we have just talked about, but it can also be limited to producing that kind of piety that is concerned only with minor acts of worship and rituals, which rather reverses the order of priorities: giving priority to tertiary acts over the secondary, and giving priority to the secondary over the primary and obligatory deeds. Similarly, we become content with giving up minor sins! But, Allah’s scheme for inculcating piety through obligatory fasting has much more meaning to it. This Taqwah enables us, as individuals and as a nation, to carry out the mission of Qur’an – in such a way as is due. The greatness and blessing of this month lie in Allah’s decision to send His Guidance in it, and He handed over the last piece of revelation to humanity through His Last Prophet. The purpose of enjoining fasting in this month is to produce that Taqwah in ourselves that generates strength and capability to uphold the guidance of holy Quran.
